Railway-spike.



.citizen of the 'United States,

i ing devices, 1`=0 the construction and combinationyof parts,

` as hereinafter more fully described and il'exible spike prongs 5, which spread after .narran srais Specification of Letters Patent.

.To all lwiz-wifi, t mag/concemi Be it known ,that I," THOMAS C.. SisK, residing at Oakland, in the county of Alameda and State' of California, have -'invented new and useful Improvements in Railway-Spikes, of which the following is a specification.-v

This'invention relates to railway fastenand especially to 4spikes. vThe object of the present inventionl is to provide a simple, inexpensive, substantial'l spike of peculiar and special design, having particularly theobject of insuring the spike againstl accidentall movement or withdrawal.

The invention consists of the lparts and claimed, having reference to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a central, vertical secti'o'n through the spike. of the spike. Fig. 3 is a view showing the spike in its position when ydriven into a tie. The present invention comprehends a railway spike, as 2, having a head portion 3 which projects at one part considerably beyond the side of the spike so as to have a large area to rest upon the surface of the` rail to be secured.

' The shank 4 of the spike may be of suit-- able proportions and dimensions, and isv shown as' centrally slotted so as to form two wedge-like portion formed between the separable, flexible prongs 5, having their lowerl ends beveled from. the inside outwardly, as at 6, so as to Jform sharp points,

whioh, when the spike is driven into the I outwardly into wood or tie, serve to deflect. the prongs 5 the position shown in Fig. 3, which illustrates the spike when driven One of the particular and salientl features 'of the present invention, addition head. 3. The rearward,

. such 'degree that when the spike 2 is tion of the surface Q due to the provision Fig. 2 is an edge View is that the spike takes an extremely .tenaage of the actions on Application filed July 11,l 1911. Serial No. 637,922.

separable, vflexible prongs, is the provision of .a wedge-like surface. orvlip 7 which'is formed about onethi'rd of the way, more or "less, down the shank 4 beneath the head- 3 of the spike. This lip 7 is formed on the side or surface of the spike vbeneath the longer overlapping portion of 'the' spike upward curvature the lip 7 is oi driven. home into a tie, the spike is bodily advanced or jammedy against the rail to be secured'by reason of the surface 8 away from 8 adjacent tothe cutting lip 7 against. the contiguous wood.

The combined eiects of the separable,

the spike has been driven into the tie, in addition to the locking or jamming action of the wedge surface 8,

vcious hold in the wood of the tie and is not easily dislodged by the expansion or shrinktie or by stresses resultin from the rail, whichisindicate at 10. 1 Having thus described my invention, what lI claim anddesire to secure by Letters Patent 'is- A railway spike having a head with a Patented-'July 9, 1912.,

of the wedge-like operaportion projecting `considerably to one side of the body of the spike and having a shank 'bifurcated to form separable prongs, and a prongs tapering upwardly and rearwardly from one side of the shank.'

. In testimony whereof l have hereunto set vmy hand'in the presence oftwo subscribing C.V C, Gooir. 

